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Thomas hits for 32 as Grayslake North handles Hampshire

When it comes to Grayslake North junior point guard Jamal Thomas and his ability to attack the rim, teammate Aidan Einloth isn't amazed by what he sees from Thomas at this point in the season. It's just now known as “the norm.”

“We just know that if we get stops and get rebounds and if he gets into the open court, he can finish,” Einloth said. “Some games it ends up at 30 and some games it's a bunch of assists.”

Friday night Thomas was up to 30 all right ... by the end of the third quarter. He finished with 32 points, 1 short of his career high, on 11 of 14 from the field along with 7 rebounds in Grayslake North's 77-53 Fox Valley Conference Fox Division boys basketball win over Hampshire, the Knights' (19-2, 9-1) eighth straight win that keeps them a game back of divsion-leading Prairie Ridge.

Thomas outscored the Whip-Purs (5-16, 3-7) in the first (15-14) and third quarters (13-12) alone.

“Second half (Thomas) just started to hesitate, kept the ball on his hip and just attacked,” Hampshire coach Ben Whitehouse said. “He is a special ballplayer, a special kid.”

Though, getting Thomas to talk about his 9 layups that helped North to 50 points in the paint and a 61.2 percent clip from the field was a different story.

“The points are good but it matters about the team win; we're still trying to look for a conference championship,” said Thomas, who had three 3-point plays. “I think it's just staying humble. We always have that target on our back where anybody wants to beat us because of our record and how we've been playing.”

Einloth finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds while James Connolly added 10 points. North came out in its customary fashion attacking the hoop and grabbed a 32-16 lead with 5:48 left in the second after Thomas found Einloth on the right block for 1 of his 2 assists to cap a 9-2 run.

When Hampshire showed a 1-2-2 late in the first half and closed to within 10 at halftime, the Knights adjusted for 24-12 edge in the third and a 12-1 run to finish the quarter.

“Once we got someone flashed to the middle we just got layup after layup after layup,” Knights coach Todd Grunloh said. “Our goal was that every time we got a stop to try to get a layup in transition out of it, to make them a little more tentative to shoot knowing they have to get back on defense that quick.”

Which fed right into Hampshire's demise, a 33.3 percent clip shooting on 63 shots. Luke Tuttle and Brennan Woods led Hampshire with 13 points each.

“We have to get back,” Whitehouse said, referring to the Knights' transition game. “We have to be efficient offensively to kind of slow the game down. They did a better job defensively the second time around.”

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